Biodegradable newspaper bags for Seattle?

UPDATE, 4:40 JUNE 27All right, I got my answer from the Seattle Times Co., and to confirm what the bag man said, the biodegradable bags aren’t coming here soon. Said Jill Mackie, spokeswoman for the Times:

“We have looked at biodegradable bags, but it’s our understanding that once a bag goes into a landfill, they need oxygen and sunlight to decompose and with the landfill technology right now, that doesn’t happen… There’s not a benefit right now, and the cost is greater.”

ORIGINAL POSTI accumulate a ridiculous amount of plastic newspaper bags. Yes, I bundle them for recycling, but that’s still a lot of petrol product building up in my pantry. So I was interested to see a press release this morning proudly claiming: “NEWSPAPERS CONVERT TO ECO-FRIENDLY NEWS BAGS.”

The bags, made by Dallas-based GP Plastics Corp., will debut bagging the Star Tribune in Minneapolis. The product sounds promising. According to the release:

By some estimates, conventional plastic bags may remain in our environment for 500-1000 years. Depending on the actual conditions within a landfill, PolyGreen plastic bags should degrade in 2-3 years and bags “floating” as litter in the environment will normally degrade completely in a few months.

So are they coming to Seattle?

Not any time soon, according to an email from Mike Skinner, chief financial officer of GP Plastics:

Alas, neither the (Seattle) Times nor the P-I have purchased the bio-bags, although I know both are aware of it and I think both would like to have it (sans budgetary restraints).

Interestingly enough, the West Coast has shown less enthusiasm than the rest of the country for this eco-friendly solution to a real looming problem. Who’d a thought? In time, I’m sure that most will convert. The advertisers and subscribers are going to demand it.

I have messages left for multiple folks over at the Times, which handles newspaper delivery of the Times and P-I, and will update the blog if they get back to me.

In the meantime, Seattle officials are continuing their pursuit of a plastic bag fee for grocery stores and pharmacies. There’s another public hearing coming up on this: